Rick Reilly, with his typical blend of condescension and illogic, argues for Utah as the national champ.
These arguments about undefeated mid-sized powers being the best are inevitable (I remember people saying the similar things about Tulane in 1998), but they're so irritatingly frivolous. Utah, which needed last-minute scores to defeat Air Force, Oregon State, and TCU (and went without a touchdown for the first 59 minutes against the Horned Frogs), which barely snuck passed New Mexico and the worst Michigan team in a generation, is the best team in the nation? That's not to be taken seriously. Beating Bama was a nice win, but one great quarter against a talented but shell-shocked team not happy to be there is a tissue-thin case for being the champ. Florida and Oklahoma lost, but using a 0 in the loss column as the only barometer for greatness is silly. Reilly's argument reminds me of the people who say that Rocky Marciano's perfect record makes him better than Ali or Joe Louis. I always walk away thinking that either the person didn't have a clue what he was talking about, or he was blatantly biased. Or both.
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ESPN - you take the good (Bill Simmons, Peter Gammons) with the bad (Reilly) and the lizard-brained (Easterbrook).
If I remember right, Simmons was always pretty liberal about slamming Reilly, right? Kind of weird that ESPN would hire him given that, unless they worry that Simmons isn't sticking around and wanted another big name. I really hate to outright take shots at anyone, but I can't remember the last time I came across a genuine insight in a Reilly column, and it drives me crazy how mean-spirited he can be toward athletes (especially ones who don't manage their money well, or who would have clashed with John Wooden).
Even though I live close to 3 hours from Bristol, CT I can actually sense when a new Simmons column or podcast has appeared because the executives' heart palpitations set off small seismic shocks across the east coast. He gets away with so much it's incredible. I think he has a personal ESPN ombudsman. Simmons' enthusiasm about talkin shit on the sports media - ESPN or otherwise - is one of his greatest qualities.
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